


The Other Woman

by PinguinoSentado



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Nat's POV, lots of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-08
Updated: 2016-06-08
Packaged: 2018-07-13 01:03:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7131746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinguinoSentado/pseuds/PinguinoSentado
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A new woman in Piper's life is messing everything up for Nat Wright. She keeps stealing her away and ruining their perfect little family. Maybe if she can impress Piper, her older sister will just dump this Vault Dweller weirdo and everything will be normal again.</p>
<p>Prompt fill by Tumblr request</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Other Woman

**Author's Note:**

> Original prompt: jealous!Nat of Piper and Nora when they first get together
> 
> You can find me on Tumblr under pinguinosentado. Let me know what you thought, good or bad, and send me any prompts you'd like to see filled. Enjoy the fluff!

Nat kicked her feet against the couch and stared at the floor. Piper was mad again. It was stupid. All she had done was try to get to the next big story. Everyone knew the Mayor was a Synth. Piper would get him soon and Nat would be there to help, but what about the Wall? Or the water? Or the house in the upper stands that everyone said was haunted?

“What were you thinking?” Piper asked, looming over Nat like a mother Deathclaw.

Nat pouted and stared and kicked. “I wasn’t doing anything.”

“You were – don’t give me that look – you were inside the Wall! Under the stands with God-knows-what-else. You could have been hurt! What if the Institute had snatched you?”

Then she wouldn’t have to watch her big sister make out with that other woman anymore. It was so gross. She wanted to tell them to get a room but that meant she would get kicked out of the house. It was bad enough that Piper had let that woman into her house in the first place. She didn’t even like the paper. She just wanted Piper.

Nat kept her mouth shut in anger. Someone had to be the grown up around here. “I had to see what happened with the lights,” she said, trying to explain what Piper should have already known.

Something had gone wrong. Someone had gone missing. Someone needed to find out the truth.

“I told you, Nora and I are looking into it,” Piper said.

Nat looked up, annoyed that Piper had named her pet something so stupid and even more upset that she was being lied to like a little kid. “Well what have you found out? Because I –“

“Almost got eaten by Mole Rats!”

“I was running away just fine before Daniel showed up. I could have made it back.”

Piper turned red and tried to shoot steam out of her ears. Nat had only ever seen her this mad when arguing with McDonough. “That’s it. You’re grounded. I don’t want to see you outside for the rest of the day.”

“Fine!” Nat folded her arms and pouted some more. That would serve Piper right. Now she couldn’t sit up her room with that woman whose name Nat refused to even think about.

Eventually she hopped off the couch and shuffled back to her corner. She could play with her chalk and draw. And Piper would forget about it. Well, not really. She always remembered when Nat was grounded. But she would let her outside if she behaved and said she was sorry.

Nat settled back into the corner and started to draw. She didn’t get far before that other woman showed up. She could hear her high, horrible voice through the door. Piper could do so much better than that shrieking banshee. She was saying something stupid about going out and fighting a bunch of Ghouls. It probably wasn’t even true. She probably just walked right by. She was ugly enough to pass for a Super Mutant.

Then Piper started laughing. She was way too nice to her. She was saying something about the printing press being broken. Nat tried to listen through the door but she couldn’t hear. That other woman was probably blocking the sound with her fat.

But there was another press in the corner. Nat peeped around the corner and looked from the broken-down wreck to the locked door. Piper would probably be out there with it for a while. Maybe she could do something really impressive to get Piper’s attention. And then she wouldn’t have to ask that thing to keep bringing back parts.

So Nat set to work, poking around inside the rattling carcass and getting grease all over her fingers. It was really hard to see anything. She managed to scrounge up a flashlight and again started looking around. She knew a little from watching Piper. If she could just get a little better at seeing how everything fit together, she could make it work like new.

It was not long before the door opened and Piper came back inside. “Nat?!”

If Piper had not scared her so badly, nothing would have happened. But she did, and Nat jumped, and she hit her head, and pieces she had worked so hard to put back in place started falling everywhere. The sound was really painful, especially after she smacked her head on her way back to the floor.

“Piper –“

“I left you alone for an hour and – and – what were you even doing in there?”

Nat now rubbed her head and looked miserably at the floor. “I thought I could fix it. You said that you were having trouble with the other one and I thought if I could just look around…”

Piper just stared, her mouth open. It took a while for Nat to realize she was not planning on yelling at her. She just sighed. “Come here,” she said, opening her arms to the now very unhappy Nat. “You’re getting grease in your hair.”

“Well, it’s really nasty in there,” Nat said, pulling her hands away and wondering how anything could be so black.

“It is,” Piper chuckled. “That’s why you let me do it. Or let me teach you. Then you won’t be banging your head around in there and ruining a perfectly good jacket.”

Nat looked at her shoulder and groaned. She had ripped it really badly. “Sorry. I know this was hard to find.”

“Oh, it’s fine,” Piper said, brushing at the rip. “It’s not so bad. I’ve probably got some thread around here. And hey, maybe Nora’ll get you a new one while she’s out.”

Her hands immediately went to the rip. “I like this one!” Nat tried to smooth the tear and make it look smaller. “See? It’s not so bad.”

“I can see your shoulder.”

Nat looked again and glared at the exposed skin. “Not a lot of it.”

Piper rolled her eyes and sighed. “Fine. Give it to me.” She held out her hand as Nat unhappily shrugged out of the jacket. “I’ll get this sewn up. Now shoo.”

As Piper began rooting through the cabinets in search of a needle and thread, Nat went back to her corner to draw on the floor. Her heart was not in it. Every few minutes, she looked over her shoulder, careful to make sure Piper did not just get rid of her coat. Sometimes she dropped hints that she was really attached to it. Or any piece of warm clothing that did not come from that other woman. Piper shushed her for good after the fourth or fifth time and Nat sat in anxious silence until she finished her work. She went to sleep, happily snuggled in her old coat as Piper went out to tell her new friend that she didn’t need her anymore.

The next day was even better. Nat woke up to find her and Piper alone again. No one was sleeping on her couch, no one was stealing space from Piper as she tried to sleep. The house was empty again. She was so happy she actually started making breakfast for her and Piper. It wasn’t long before Piper came down and helped and the two of them had a nice, normal morning. Just like they used to. Then Piper went out to prowl the town, leaving Nat alone to sell papers until she came home.

When she did, she surprised Nat with fresh Radstag. Nat squealed and they ate like queens before Nat, even with her full stomach, outplayed Piper at Blast Radius three times out of four. Piper only won at the end because she got a lucky roll and had to quit so she ended on a good note. Nat let her have the win. She deserved it.

She had forgotten all about the other woman until she showed back up at the door, like a feral dog with nowhere to go. Or a Mole Rat with bad eyesight that couldn’t find its own hole in the ground. Or a Mirelurk all the other Mirelurks made fun of for being so weird looking.

The woman was saying something. “Your sister was telling me you tore your coat the other day.”

No! Piper had fixed her coat! Everything was fine! Nat shook her head and shuffled. Where had Piper gone? Just out to the market, right? She would be back soon. Then it would start talking to Piper instead of her.

“Well, I was out in the Wasteland,” it rambled, never wondering for a second if Nat cared. “And I found myself in this old mall. Not a lot of clothes left, but the kids section still had some little gems in it.”

Kids section? Nat wasn’t a kid. She was sure smarter than this overgrown Bloatfly. And she – what was _that?_

The other woman pulled a coat out of her bag. It looked so new and shiny. She took a very careful step forward. “It’s nice,” she said carefully.

She only said it because this was Piper’s idea and she had probably picked the coat out herself and just given it to this Nora woman so she could earn points with Nat and it wouldn’t work but that didn’t mean she couldn’t just enjoy the coat. Right?

“The color seemed right,” it said, holding its prize out to Nat as she took another step and grabbed at the fabric. “And I know it gets cold here at night. I used to look at these when I was a little girl. You wouldn’t believe how expensive they used to be.”

Nat wasn’t listening. She took the coat gently. She loved the fur lining the hood. It was so soft. And the color was the most wonderful shade of blue she had ever seen. And it had so many pockets. She just kept finding more even after she had put it on.

“So,” the other woman said. “Do you like it?”

Nat forced herself to nod her head. She would have to thank Piper later. There was no way it had come up with this all on its own. This was too nice. Too warm.

“Great! I, uh, have some things to do. Outside,” it said, backing toward the door. “I’m glad you like it! Be sure to show your sister.”

She did. She showed Piper as soon as she walked in the door. She was alone, which made Nat very happy, but even when she was alone she was way too nice. She looked over the jacket, confused.

“Where’d you get that?” she asked, weirdly suspicious.

Nat blinked. “Nora gave it to me.”

Just saying the name made her feel gross. But Piper beamed and made everything better. “Did she, now?”

“Yeah,” Nat said, bobbing her head up and down. “It’s so warm. Thank you for picking it out.”

Piper scoffed. “I didn’t do anything. I hadn’t even talked to her about it yet. But I will thank her for it when she gets back.” She paused, then frowned at Nat. “You did thank her, didn’t you?”

Why would she do that when it had been Piper’s idea? “Yeah. I did.”

Piper stared for a long time. “You better have,” she finally said. “That was a really nice thing for her to do.”

Well, whatever Piper was trying to do, Nat couldn’t figure it out. Why lie about this and give the credit to someone who didn’t deserve it? She was way too good for Nora – the other woman. Just the other woman. Even if she gave Nat things she was still just the other woman.

Nat went to bed that night wondering if she should take the coat off and throw it on the floor. She didn’t want it to be from her. It was too nice. She didn’t want to give it up. But she didn’t want to make that woman feel like she had a place here. She didn’t. Piper was too good for her and she could just go find someone else to latch on to. Stupid Blood Bug woman.

She woke up feeling better than she had in a long time. She stretched, still refusing to take off the coat no matter who it had come from, and waited for Piper to finish cooking. She was so hungry she could eat a whole Brahmin. She dug into her food without even looking up.

Only when she smelled something weird did she look up. “Is that –“

Piper finished her thought. “Where. Did. You. Get. Coffee.”

The other woman stood by the hot plate, pitcher in hand and a somewhat frightened look on her face. “Just down the road? Big store room underneath the old Pequod’s. I’ll get more tomorrow, just –no, no. Sit down.”

Piper charged the woman, grasping for the pitcher. “You have no idea how long it’s been since I’ve had coffee!”

“And you won’t get any if you don’t sit down!”

Nat watched in horror as Piper sat down with a pout. She had eaten food it had cooked and liked it and now it was offering her coffee. Even more horrible was the fresh cup already sitting in front of her. She had given her a cup even before Piper.

No, Piper had done that. Piper had to have done that.

“How come Nat gets the first cup?” Piper whined, reaching for Nat’s steaming mug.

That was impossible. Nora wasn’t nice to Nat. She was mean. She was taking Piper away. She wasn’t giving her coffee or making her breakfast or giving her clothes. This was all wrong. It had to be a dream. A weird, horrible dream that she would wake up from.

“And you gave her the pillow,” Piper wined louder as Nat snatched the coffee away from her. Nora looked up from pouring another long enough to glare.

“What?” Nat blurted.

“You didn’t notice?” Piper asked, her tone not entirely happy. “You were sound asleep when she came home. She insisted you get first dibs because I already had two pillows to –“

Another mug cracked down onto the table. “Free pillows already on your bed, right Piper?”

Her sister made a weird face. “Usually. When I can find them.”

Piper grabbed for the mug but Nora refused to let go until Piper smiled and said she was sorry for something. Nat didn’t know what was going on but that was probably just because her whole world had just turned upside down. Nora wasn’t nice to her. She wasn’t. It just wasn’t how things were.

She poked at the little strips of meat on her plate. They were really good. She hadn’t ever tried them before. And the coffee was amazing.

“Thanks.”

Nora whipped around so fast she sent a thin stream of coffee spilling onto the floor. Nat looked from her to a very, very happy Piper and back again. “For the coat. And the pillow,” she said as they stared.

A huge grin spread over Nora’s face. “Yeah. No problem. Anytime.”

Nat went back to eating her breakfast. “What is this called?”

“Bacon,” Nora said. “Or I guess what bacon is nowadays.”

“It’s really good.”

The other woman turned red and went back to work in the kitchen. Piper was grinning from ear to ear, her teeth showing even around the mug she had glued to her lips. Grownups were so weird. They said weird things that didn’t make sense and made jokes no one understood and took older sisters away from their families.

But, as long as she wasn’t going to lose Piper, maybe this was okay. Maybe she could live with the coat. And the bacon. And the coffee.

And, as long as she behaved, maybe she could live with the other woman, too.


End file.
